HMAT Ascanius, AIF Convoy

[WhiteStarLine]

A chance conversation with a work colleague elicited that he was the grandson of an officer on the HMAT Benalla, that carried many troops from Australia to the UK from 1914 to 1918. His grandfather's Officers' Log is still in the family, together with an immaculate set of Convoy Orders from 1914 and handwritten journal entries covering location, knots, wind, engine RPM, displacement for every day he sailed. As well as notes on spherical trigonometry and navigation guidance stars.

I've mapped my own grandfather's route in 1917 from Melbourne to Devonport, Plymouth on the HMAT Ascanius, a ship in the same convoy. They stopped in Durban, Cape Town and Freetown in Sierra Leone. An example follows:

[David B]

I have often wondered why the ships used that route instead of using the Med. because it it sure is a lot longer. Reasons that come to mind are

(1) Size of the convoy.

(2) Cost to travel through Suez.

(3) Lack of navigators to traverse probably, a more tricky route.

[Joe R]

Hello David,

Can think of at least five more reasons not to use the Suez Canal.

U35, U39, U38, U34, U33,.......

Respectfully,

Joe R

[WhiteStarLine]

Hi David,

As Joe has said, it was the submarine threat. The early convoys went via Suez.

Cheers,

Bill

[David B]

OK, and also accepted that submarine detection and elimination were rather primitive in those days, but were there not submarines in the Atlantic as well, or did the convoys just have to

take a calculated gamble and hope for the best.?

[Amity]

Hi White Star Line

I was very interested to read your subject re HMAT Ascanius.

I am currently researching the first two convoys of the AIF, in which HMAT Ascanius was a member of the 1st convoy, departing Fremantle with HMAT Medic on 31 October 1914 and meeting up at sea with the bulk of the convoy, which departed Albany on 1 November 1914. If you have any information going back to the end of 1914, I would be very interested to hear about it.

The 1st convoy was escorted by warships, but subsequent convoys travelled unescorted, after the demise of the SMS Emden & Koningsberg. However, I would be particularly interested to know if your friend's grandfather makes any mention of Defensively Armed Merchant Ships during Ascanius's career with the Australian Government, ie to the end of WW1.

I agree with the previous respondents that the Cape route was used later in the war due to the U Boat threat in the Med. The first 2 convoys of the AIF were the two largest and the only ones to sail in groups. Although 44 AIF convoys are recorded for the whole war, from the beginning of 1915 this appears to have been a convenient way to describe departures from Australia in 4 to 6 week periods. The ships often departed from different ports and often sailed independently. As the Indian Ocean was considered to be threat free, the ships congregated in Capetown to depart as escorted convoys for the passage through the Atlantic.

Cheers

Amity

[WhiteStarLine]

Hi Amity,

I only have the HMAT Benalla's Officers' Log (not the Ascanius) in my possession for another week. PM me and I'm happy to help and can probably assist with a photocopy of a page or so. I think the Ascanius gets 1 mention. The officer recorded the lat / long / current / direction / rpm etc once a day, for every voyage the Benalla was on from 1914 onwards.

Reading Sapper Dadswell's memoirs, his voyage on the Ulysses in April 1916 was as a lone voyage. However, I believe my the time of my grandfather's May 11 1917 voyage, convoy life was routine. His may well have had the following ships in it:

A11 HMAT Ascanius (Service record shows departing Melbourne 11 May)

A15 HMAT Port Sydney

A24 HMAT Benalla (Officers' log shows in Port Phillip Bay 12 May 1917)

A37 HMAT Barambah (may have carried New Zealand troops)

A38 HMAT Ulysses

A42 HMAT Boorara

A46 HMAT Clan Mcgillivray

A74 HMAT Marathon

A9 HMAT Shropshire

RMS Niagara

He took 17 photos on the Ascanius and 1 shows two troopships astern and the Cape Town ones show troopships in the harbour.

Happy to help,

Bill

[Amity]

Hi Bill

Thanks for your informative last message. As Benalla also sailed with the 1st Convoy, any information, such as log book pages, would be very useful to my research. If I may, I would like to take you up on your offer of copies of a page or two. I assume individual days of the log book run from noon to noon, so the pages I would be particularly interested in are those from 31-10-14 / 1-11-14 & 1-11-14 / 2-11-14, particularly if there are any comments regarding the convoy's departure from King George Sound, Albany; forming up in their divisions in the open sea; the passage to Cape Leeuwin and early experiences of maintaining her position in the convoy. It will probably be more convenient to send them to my email address, theseus66@westnet.com.au . If the log pages only refer to your friend's grandfather's time in Benalla in 1917, then a couple of pages during her coastal transit of the WA coast, dated approx 16-5-17 to 18-5-17, would also be valuable, as all these logbooks are no doubt destroyed with the changing ownership of shipping companies over time.

You may be interested to know that the convoy that sailed around the 17-5-1917 was known as Convoy 31 and included individual & small groups of departure-from-Australia-dates ranging from 4-4-17 to 1-6-17. Benalla's departure date from Fremantle was 22-5-17. She had previously embarked troops in Sydney & Melbourne, but only 2 Military officers joined her in Fremantle. My source, Sea Transport of the AIF, shows that A.42 HMAT Boorara departed with Benalla on 22 May and she did embark 118 NZ troops in Melbourne. There is no mention of Barambah in this convoy, as after the 1st Convoy she was largely employed ferrying troops across the English Channel. Both these ships were ex German vessels commandeered in Australian ports / waters at the beginning of the war. They were both renamed and they both sailed with the 2nd Convoy.

I gather you have no information about Defensively Armed Merchant Ships. I doubt if any ships of the 1st Convoy fell into this category at the time as that convoy was the only one to be escorted from Australia by warships. There is a possibility, however, that subsequently a few of them may have been fitted with guns.

Cheers

Amity

[WhiteStarLine]

I thought I would finalise this post with the information gained subsequently, covering the ships and route of AIF Convoy 31, for anyone else researching. Convoy 31 congregated in Fremantle in May 1917 and had troopships from New Zealand, Sydney and Melbourne. Australian ships were Ascanius (A11), Benalla (A24), Boorara (A42), Clan MacGillivray (A46), Marathon (A74), Port Sydney (A15), Shropshire (A9), Suffolk (A23) and Ulysses (A38).

The Australian ships left their ports individually (Benalla left Sydney on 10 May and Melbourne on 12 July, Ascanius left Melbourne on 11 May). New Zealand ships were Pakeha (FO1), Tofua (NZ38) and Turakina (NZ48), the flagship, escorted to Fremantle by the British cruisers HMS Doris and Psyche.

The troopships left Fremantle as a convoy on the evening of 22 May, escorted by the cruiser HMS Encounter. At Port Louis in Mauritius, they met with 2 Japanese cruisers on the 5th June as an escort to Cape Town. They arrived at Durban on 12 June and left on the 17th for Cape Town. This was a 23 hour stop and on the morning of 22 June, they were escorted by the armed merchant cruiser Orama to Freetown (4 - 7 July), where the escort changed to the Mantua. On 17 July, 6 British L class destroyers escorted the convoy to Devonport, Plymouth on 19 July.

Information for this sourced from Sapper Frost's service record and photo album, the Benalla's Officer of the Watch notes, Amity's posts and Peter Plowman's Across the sea to war: Australian and New Zealand troop convoys from 1865 through two world wars to Korea and Vietnam

[WhiteStarLine]

Summary of AIF Convoy 31, sourced from William (Bill) G. Bowler, Diary Of Voyage On HMA Troopship Shropshire A9 from Australia, 21May-July 1917, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, MLDOC 1267:

Date Location and Activity

09-05-17 Port Sydney departs Sydney.

10-05-17 Benalla & Marathon depart Sydney.

11-05-17 Shropshire departs Port Melbourne at 1:30 pm, followed by Ascanius 15 minutes later. Farewelled by 10,000 people. Drops anchor near Sorrento (inside Port Phillip Bay) alongside Boorara and Clan MacGillivray.

12-05-17 Convoy waits overnight for Benalla to dock at Port Melbourne and return. At 4:30 pm destroyer takes lead, followed in turn by Benalla, Shropshire, Ascanius, Clan MacGillivray and Boorara.

14-05-17 Convoy sails south to avoid shipping lanes. Seas very rough, ¾ Shropshire sea-sick. At noon joined by HMS Encounter, HMS Doris and troopships Marathon, Pakeha, Port Sydney, Tofua, Turakina and Ulysses.

21-05-17 Rottnest Island sighted at dawn. Suffolk awaits convoy in Fremantle. The 12 ships anchor off Fremantle but no one is allowed off.

22-05-17 Convoy departs from 4:00 pm with HMS Doris and a Japanese cruiser as escort. Last ship away just after 10:00 pm.

23-05-17 Duringthe night, Japanese cruiser drops back with slower ships - Boorara and Port Sydney leave convoy. Troops in tropical suits due to hot weather and during physical exercise a medicine ball is dropped overboard,causing the Benalla to take a wide detour thinking it is a mine.

26-05-17 Sea calm. Convoy learns Transylvania torpedoed, 400 soldiers drowned. [it had sunk just before they left Melbourne even though 2 destroyers accompanied it. The wreck was re-discovered in 2011.] Rumoured that a P& O and an Orient Liner also sunk near South Africa [later confirmed]. Several bets being made as to whether this convoy gets smacked or not.

05-06-17 TwoJapanese cruisers join convoy at Port Louis, Mauritius as escort to Cape Town. HMS Doris leaves.

09-06-17 Convoy south of Madagascar.

10-06-17 Convoy stops to bury at sea a soldier who died during a storm, when he slipped down a companion ladder. His family had already lost a son at Gallipoli, another in France and his mother died 2 weeks before he left Melbourne.

11-06-17 Convoy splits into 2, each escorted by Japanese cruiser. The second cruiser was followed in-line by the Ascanius, Marathon, Turakina, Clan MacGillivray, Suffolk, Pakeha and Tofua.

12-06-17 Convoy reaches Durban, South Africa. Ascanius group arrives 11:30 am. Swim in surf beach and route march to Durban Town Hall, followed by rickshaw rides. AIF visit whaling factory at the base of the Bluff. Town hall and whaling station photographed by Sapper Frost.

15-06-17 At noon, the Japanese cruiser led out Marathon, Ascanius, Tofua and Turakina bound for Cape Town while 48 hours later, the faster group was led out by HIJM Fushima.

21-06-17 Convoy enters Table Bay, Cape Town. Only 1 ship could manoeuvre at a time in the small harbour. The men were granted leave from 2:30 until 11:00 pm that night.

22-06-17 Shropshire left docks at 7:30 am. Armed P & O liner Orama detailed as escort for the 'fast' convoy of Ascanius, Benalla, Shropshire, Marathon, Tofua and Turakin. The slow ships Ulysses, Clan MacGillivrayand Suffolk arrived as they were leaving.

30-06-17 Anyone crossing the equator for the first time was dunked, clothes and all, in hot conditions. The line itself was crossed at noon the next day.

02-07-17 Ascanius temporarily breaks from theconvoy to bury a man who had died in an accident the previous day.

04-07-17 Freetown, Sierra Leone sighted at 7 am. Convoy anchored offshore for 3 days but did not disembark. Heat oppressive, malaria and typhoid common in town and coal barges replenished ships. Four-masted cruiser HMS KingAlfred was at anchor and this may have been the ship photographed by Sapper Frost. They departed 7 July, escorted by the Mantua.

08-07-17 Convoy advised that all bugle calls to cease and from now on, anyone falling overboard would not be rescued. Smoking after dark had long been banned and submarine guards, now permanently stationed night and day, rigidly enforced the ban.

Steamer sighted, suddenly turned and appeared to be running away. Mantua fired three shots in quick succession. The stranger stopped at once, until the convoy had passed and incurred a £700 fine.

Submarines reported off the Cape Verde Islands. The 'slow' convoy arrived atFreetown, joined by the Orontes, the ship that ultimately returned Sapper Frost to Australia.

11-07-17 An enterprising bookmaker on the Shropshire encouraged bets on which troopships would be torpedoed. As the largest troopship, the Shropshire was favourite (3 to 1),followed by Tofua (4 to 1) and 6 to 1for the Ascanius, Benalla and Marathon. The Turakina only attracting 10 to 1 odds.

12-07-17 Patrolling seaplane spotted few hours after Canary Islands. Convoy zigzagging all day.

13-07-17 Abreast the Azores, a whale was sighted. The Benalla charged it, blowing shortwhistle blasts so that all hands manned their stations. She realised her mistake just before rammingthe whale.

17-07-17 Six English Torpedo Boat Destroyers arrive at 2:40 pm, to escort convoy to Plymouth. Numbers painted on bow and Bowler recorded seeing 27, 48, 56, 62 and 85. These were HMS Porpoise, Hope, Lapwing, Ambuscade and Ruby. Life boats were lowered and rope ladders swung from each boat so that the troopship could be evacuated immediately if torpedoed. An SOS signal was received and the Mantua and 2 destroyers raced off to investigate reports of a torpedoed Hospital ship. Sapper Frost photographed the H or Acorn class destroyer HMS Hope in Plymouth Harbour around 36 hours later.

18-07-17 At 3:00 pm submarine surfaces between Shropshire and Tofua. Tofua fires its rear gun and destroyer 56 turned in its own length and approaching at40 knots (75 kilometres per hour) shot off the conning tower with its secondshot. Submarine sank. At 5:00 pm first bodies from Hospital ship seen – the body of a nurse on a life raft and 4 drowned sailors in life jackets. All men slept fully clothed in life jackets.

19-07-17 Convoy arrives at Plymouth Harbour at dawn and troops are recorded disembarking at Devonport (Great Western Railway Docks) on 11am (day 69 for Sapper Frost). Troops entrain for Tidmouth, Salisbury Plain.

[WhiteStarLine]

Between June 12 - 14, 1917 - curious AIF onlookers view a whale being loaded onto a light rail carriage at Durban, Bluff whaling station. The second photo shows the extended whale being processed at the factory.

[seaJane]

Just a query, it being in my area of interest, but (after an admittedly-brief search) I can't find a record of a hospital ship being torpedoed 17 July 1917. Anyone?

[WhiteStarLine]

SeaJane, I thought it would be easy to track but I also can't find any confirmatory record. The funny thing is that so far, every Sapper Frost photo and every Third Officer Beaumont log entry correlates with Bowler's account. Here are photographs of (I presume) Freetown with the King Alfred, TPD H48 in Plymouth (it was only possible for Sapper Frost to photograph it on arrival and the Ascanius unloading in Plymouth. Bowler's service record shows him departing on 11 May 1917 [http://www.aif.adfa....erson?pid=28737] and Frost's service record shows him on the Ascanius on the same day [http://www.aif.adfa....rson?pid=104940]. I borrowed Beaumont's log book for several weeks and photocopied the relevant pages. Larger photos or extracts freely available to any researcher.

[Guest]

On 10/14/2011 at 08:35, David B said:

I have often wondered why the ships used that route instead of using the Med. because it it sure is a lot longer. Reasons that come to mind are

(1) Size of the convoy.

(2) Cost to travel through Suez.

(3) Lack of navigators to traverse probably, a more tricky route.

 I am plotting the course of the  HMAT Ascanius at the moment  from when it left Adelaide   in October 1914  and joined the Flotilla going to Alexandria .It went  via Ceylon  ,the Suez  then to Cairo 

[Guest]

 the book The fighting 10th  by Cecil Bert Lovell LOCK has a good account of life on boar H.M.A.T ASCANIUS whilst part of the Flotilla  going to the Dardenelles from Australia in 1914.

[alantwo]

Ascanius is mention in the 6th Battery Australian Field Artillery War Diary it apparently collided with HMAT Shropshire on 21st November 1914.

 

Regards

Alan

Edited 6 May , 2017 by alantwo
accuracy

[abbrover]

This is a photograph from my own collection of the S.S. Ascanius when she sailing under the flag of Alfred Holt's Blue Funnel Line. Hope this image helps.

Regards

 

Pete